The Gods Must Be Crazy
by Fireglass
Summary: -I thought Souls were supposed to forget!- On his thirtieth birthday, Percy receives a surprise from Poseidon that will change everything. Humor and soul-searching ensue. Percy/Annabeth. Mini-series leading into a full fanfiction.
1. In Which The Gods Have a Sense of Humor

I really couldn't get this idea out of my head ever since I read The Last Olympian. It's been so long since I've written fanfiction, I'm not sure if it's really any good, but I hope readers enjoy!

I'm considering making this into a miniseries of one-shots, just playing the characters off on the idea.

Enjoy, and any constructive criticism would be welcomed!

* * *

_In Which the Gods Have a Sense of Humor_

I was working at Camp Half Blood when it happened, but I guess that's how these things usually go.

It was my thirtieth birthday—which, for a half-blood, is kind of a big deal. If you can make it _that _long without getting eaten by a monster or cursed by Hades or something, you know you're doing the right thing. (But I might have had help on the Hades front. Being friends with his son sort of evens the scales out.)

Chiron didn't wait long to recruit me after I turned twenty-five. He helped me and Annabeth out of a really tight spot with a couple of rogue harpies—and if anyone asks, no, I _don't _know how the sink pipes in Apartment Twelve just randomly combusted—and then he sprang the question on us: Did we want to be adult counselors at Camp Half-Blood?

So that was how we ended up there permanently, making us the oldest people there except for Chiron, who's over three thousand years old, and Mr. D, who's a god...and Daedelus, but he hasn't been at Camp for years anyway. We were back in our old cabins as leaders, and that was fine. It's not like we were married yet, but that ring on Annabeth's finger sure got a lot of groans from pretty much all of the boys. I guess I wasn't the only one who thought she was beautiful.

But anyway, that's beside the point. Aside from Tyson, my Cyclops half-brother who dropped by to visit once every six or seven months, no one was in the Poseidon cabin. Chiron bumped me over to the sword-fighting just so I could make myself useful, and that was the fun part.

On my thirtieth birthday, exactly fourteen years since Kronos' mini-reign of terror ended, I got the biggest shock of my life...and not because Annabeth snuck around my cabin with her invisibility cap on and grabbed me from behind. I'd call that the _second _biggest shock. No, the _biggest _god-sized whammy came when I was by myself in the training area.

I was working on some tough moves I hadn't really gotten the hang of in the last, oh, eighteen years, and next thing I knew someone was yelling my name. Or sort of bleating it:

"Perrrrrcy!"

I looked up and saw my best friend/favorite satyr, Grover, clopping over as fast as his hooves could carry him. He looked really freaked out—mega freaked-out. Like, Kronos-just-came-back-and-he's-tearing-up-the-Big-House freaked out. I was immediately on alert, ripping my helmet off and running to meet him.

"What's up, G-man?" I demanded.

"P-Percy, you'll never believe who I found!" Grover was so scared and so excited he couldn't stand still.

"Take it easy, Grover." I grabbed his shoulders and made him look at me. "_What's _going on? Who did you find?"

Grover glanced over his shoulder, muttering something about Islands and Fortune and a bunch of other stuff I didn't really get; then he perked up really fast.

"Oh, in the name of Pan!" He shrugged me off. "Mr. D needs something, Percy!"

"Hey, wait!" I called after him as he hurried away. "Grover, what's going _on_?"

"You'll see!" He hollered over his shoulder, and then he disappeared up the hill to the Big House—so I guess Kronos wasn't eating it.

My first big instinct was to find Annabeth and talk to her, but after eighteen years together I could pretty much guess what she'd say: "Grover's just pulling your rope, Seaweed Brain! It's a birthday prank, lighten up!"

And people at Camp _always _took my birthday seriously, since I could have ended the world on my sixteenth. It was like _they _were celebrating one more year of being alive, too.

I went back at it with my invisible opponent, trying to forget Grover's weird visit; I was just about to write it off when I heard someone say from behind me, "You fight like a real warrior."

I almost dropped my sword.

There was no way I'd heard that voice; maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe after all these years and all the close calls, I was losing it. Because there was just _no way _that was real. It had to be Tyson showing up for my birthday and throwing his voice to startle me, or something. I didn't even want to turn around and look.

Everything was dead quiet. Then, "Uh...they said I should look for you. Are you...Perseus Jackson?"

The way he said my name felt like a punch in my stomach; I turned around really slowly to face him, hoping he'd disappear before I looked.

He didn't; he was standing at the side of the arena, arms crossed, watching me. He was wearing khakis and a black t-shirt with _AC/DC _on the front. Everything—the way he was looking at me, the way he was standing, even pretty much the way he was dressed—it was all the _same_. Everything was the same except there wasn't a scar on his face. And he was younger...way younger.

_This is what Grover was talking about. _"It's...Percy." I managed. "_Percy _Jackson."

He looked me over with those weird blue eyes; the last time I'd seen them, they'd been almost gray. Gray and _dead_.

"I've heard about you." He said quietly. "My mother told me stories. She's always told me stories...about the gods. About this place. But I guess I never thought it was real." He looked me up and down, and I felt weird, because he was half my age and it _still _made me feel like a twelve year old when he looked at me that way.

"Neither did I, at first." I capped Riptide and slipped it into my pocket. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Okay..." It was hard to have a conversation with him. "You should...um, talk to Chiron. He'll put you in the Hermes cabin..." I stopped. That was just wrong. There was no way we could do it, and Chiron would know why. "Nevermind. We'll figure something out."

He laughed, and _that _sounded weird. "It's alright. I'm used to getting shuttled around. I've never been able to stay in more than one school every year."

"ADHD?" I already knew I was right.

"And dyslexia." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And weird stuff keeps happening. The crime in our city went way up after my mom and I moved in—literally, _right _after. I know I'm giving her a hard time, but she doesn't get mad about it. I'm almost glad to get away for the summer. She deserves better."

I thought about _my _mom, all the blue food over the years and the way she put up with me, loved me even though I was the son of a Sea God—and how she and my stepdad Paul had let me and Annabeth crash with them whenever we needed to, and still invited us over for dinner sometimes.

"Hey, the fact that she accepts you for who you are, man...you can't find that everywhere." I told him.

"I guess." He shrugged, then he straightened up. "Oh, yeah, I'm being kind of rude, right? I should introduce myself." He stepped toward me and stuck out his hand. "I'm Luke. Luke Backlund."

I swallowed hard before I shook his hand. "Have you studied Greek mythology in school, Luke?"

He nodded. "My mom was always buying my books."

"Ever heard of the Islands of the Blest?"

He tilted his head. "I guess, maybe. Why?"

For one second, I wasn't there; I was back in the throne room on Olympus, beside a dying friend: _Think...rebirth. Try for three times. Islands of the Blest._

"Nothing." I shook my head. "Come on, we should find Chiron. And Annabeth...she'll love you."

"Annabeth...?"

"Annabeth Chase. My fiancé."

"Oh." He got quiet for a second. "I think I knew an Annabeth. Maybe at my old school."

My throat felt tight. "Yeah, well...I guess that's not surprising, right?"

He looked at me really hard, like he was trying to figure something out. "I think I can find Chiron on my own. He's the big centaur, right? The one who trained Jason?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"I'll go find him. I don't want to interrupt your training." Luke turned around and headed toward the Big House. That was when I remembered something...a promise I'd made.

"Luke!" He stopped. "Have you been claimed yet?"

"Of course." He didn't look at me. "Why else would I be here?"

"Great. Um...who's your dad?"

"Poseidon."

I would have sat down hard right there in the arena if I hadn't put my hand on the back of the dummy chair to steady myself. I looked out in the direction of the Sound. _I should have known, dad. I should have known. _I didn't think about the fact that this meant my dad had been out with some mortal girl while we were fighting for Olympus fourteen years ago. Honestly, it didn't matter.

"Same here." My throat was totally dry. "I guess that makes us half-brothers."

"I've...never had a brother before." He sounded a little nervous.

I shook my head. "The gods must have a crazy sense of humor."

Luke looked at me over his shoulder and I could see him grinning. "I don't know why, Percy, but I think I know what you mean."

I swallowed. "I thought...Lethe's stream...souls are supposed to forget."

"Forget what?"

"_Everything_."

He was really quiet for a few seconds. "If souls forget...then can you tell me why I have a scar under my left arm that's been there since I was born? Or why I always have dreams about a golden sarcophagus and a girl with blond hair?"

I walked over to him and put my arm around his shoulders. "Come on. We'll let Chiron explain. But I can tell you one thing, Luke: the gods make the rules, and they break them. Half-bloods...we're in between. Sometimes, we break the rules too."

"That's how you defeated Kronos."

"No." I admitted. "I didn't. A friend of mine did."

_The gods may be crazy_, I decided as Luke and I walked toward the Big House, _But I think they know what they're doing._

Even if they didn't, this was going to be an interesting year.


	2. In Which There is a Heart to Heart

I didn't expect to enjoy writing this as much as I do, honestly. It's such a breath of fresh air. This mini-series may pave the way to a full-out fanfiction, the plot of which is hinted at in the end of this installment. I'd like to thank the three reviewers of the first chapter--you guys sure made my night and insipred me to get this next bit flying. Thank you, this one's dedicated to YOU!

And as always, enjoy!

* * *

In Which There is a Heart-To-Heart

Annabeth was busy teaching a battle strategy to a couple of Athena campers when I took Luke-The-Reincarnated to the Big House, which was okay by me; I didn't want her to just see him out of the blue and have a heart attack. Not that half-bloods _usually _have heart attacks, but I'm pretty sure seeing her favorite cousin back from the dead would just about blow a fuse in Annabeth's brain...which is saying a lot.

Chiron and Mr. D were waiting for us with Grover when we got there; Grover gave me this look that was either _What are we in for, _or _I told you so. _Or maybe _Help this aluminum can is choking me I can't breathe! _

"Well, Percy." Chiron looked up from his pinochle game and thumped Grover on the back until he spat up a can tab from his Diet Coke. "It seems you've met our newest camper."

Which meant Grover had already filled them in. I nodded. "Luke, this is Chiron. Chiron, this is Luke...Backlund." I added that last part because Grover's eyebrows shot way, way up toward his horns.

"I see." Chiron extended a hand. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Luke...and to the family." He glanced at Mr. D, who must have felt his stare, because he looked up and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, Blackland, welcome, welcome. Your move, Chiron."

Luke looked a little lost, so I muttered, "He does that to everybody."

"I can hear you, Johnson." Dionysus said while Chiron made his move; I could have corrected him, but after a few years of him saying my name wrong, I just kind of got used to it.

While Chiron started talking to Luke, asking him about his old schools and his problems, all the standard stuff, I pulled Grover aside.

"Grover, would you mind showing Luke around?" I asked. "I need to talk to Annabeth."

"Yeah, s-sure." Grover's eyes were huge. "What do you think, Percy?"

"I think we should have guessed it. I mean, Luke as good as told us he'd be back, when we were in the throne room."

"I know, but..._Poseidon's son_?"

I winced. "That part, I'm still dealing with."

Grover sighed. "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thanks." I clapped him on the shoulder. "See you at dinner, G-man."

I left the four of them in there talking and hurried toward the forest; it was where they kept all the monsters for training, the only ones allowed inside of camp boundaries. I went straight to Zeus's Fist, the pile of rocks where we'd fought Kronos' army years ago, and I sat down and waited.

It didn't take Annabeth long to find me; that was the funny thing about us. Over the past couple years we'd started to get this really good sense of where the other one was no matter how far apart we were. So one second I was sitting there by myself and the next thing I knew, she was pulling of her invisibility cap and sitting next to me.

"Happy birthday, Seaweed Brain." She kissed me and it _still _made my head spin.

"Thanks, Wise Girl. How was training?"

"The usual." Annabeth shrugged. "The new campers have all of mother's brains but they're not sure how to use them yet. They'll come to that part eventually."

Everything got quiet after that, and it was really peaceful—just the sounds of bugs chirping, monsters sulking around and wood nymphs laughing. The usual. I pulled Riptide out and started rolling it around in my hands. "Annabeth, there's something I have to tell you."

"If you want any birthday favors from me, Percy, the answer is _no_." Annabeth snapped. I felt my face get hot.

"Gods, no, Annabeth! It's not like that!"

"Then _what_? You look so tense I bet Hephaestus could use you for a spring coil in his forge." She poked me right between the eyes. "Spit it _out_, Jackson."

"Luke's back." There, I spat it out.

Annabeth looked at me for a second, then started twisting the hat between her fingers. "Very funny. I guess I deserved that one for sneaking up on you this morning."

"No...Annabeth, it's not a joke."

"Of course it is, Percy. Luke is _dead_, remember?"

"I know. The throne room on Olympus. But he also said he would try for three times, remember? Islands of the Blest? Well, Grover just found him. He's back."

"So soon?"

"Yeah, and another thing...he's sort of my half-brother."

Annabeth actually laughed at that one. "I'm not sure which one Poseidon is punishing, you or him. _Brothers_, Percy? That's almost unbelievable."

"I know, but...it happens."

"So this real?" She looked at me really close like she was trying to figure out if this was some elaborate hoax. If anyone could figure that sort of thing out, it was Annabeth. "Is Luke really back?"

"It looks like it." I admitted.

"And he doesn't...remember anything?" Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought she looked a little hopeful.

"Not really. He's got questions and...he has dreams." I wondered if I should tell her he was dreaming about Kronos' old coffin and a blond girl that was probably Annabeth. I decided not to. "But Lethe's stream is powerful."

Annabeth sighed. "I hope Tyson won't be jealous."

It was something to worry about, but for some reason I laughed. "We both learned a long time ago that being a Son of the Sea God isn't exactly a VIP club, Annabeth."

"Right." She grinned. "The Cyclopes."

We just talked for a while after that, but I knew there was something she wasn't telling me. It was just the way she sat there when she wasn't talking, and stared into the forest. I knew the whole thing had rocked her world a little bit, but she was going to do something to even things out again. That was the thing about the daughter of Athena—she always had a plan.

* * *

Annabeth saw Luke for the first time at dinner that night; we were sitting at the Poseidon table waiting to give our offering and I saw Annabeth walk in with this younger girl from her cabin. She looked at our table, stopped walking and just stared.

I figured Luke didn't notice, because he was staring at the pizza on his plate. Then he asked, really quiet, "Why is that girl staring at me?"

I looked at Annabeth and shook my head; she looked really pale, but she hurried over to the Athena table and sat with her back to us. I glanced at Luke and shrugged. "No idea what you're talking about, man."

He looked up, didn't see Annabeth, and frowned. "Huh."

That was when we got up to give our offerings to our dad. I said the usual prayer, just thanking him for, you know, existing. But Luke stood a little longer and stared into the fire, and I thought I heard him mutter, "Let me know you're there."

I wondered if abandonment issues carried over into your next life.

Luke lightened up while we ate, but he kept looking at the Athena table and I didn't have to guess why. Annabeth seemed like she was trying really hard not to look at us, but she wasn't doing the best job. Finally, after Chiron announced KP—which we were exempt from, being Guests of Honor, thank the gods—Annabeth walked over to our table.

"Here's your birthday present, Percy." She put a little box on the table in front of me, then added, "Can I borrow your brother for a few minutes?"

"Uh, sure." I muttered. She motioned Luke to follow her; he glanced at me and got up when I nodded. They left the pavilion and I unwrapped the box. I would say what the present was, but it was kind of personal.

Anyways, after a couple of minutes I started feeling a little anxious. Old habits die hard, I guess, or just memories. The last time Luke and Annabeth had had some one-on-one time, he'd dumped the weight of the world on her shoulders...literally. I decided it might be a good idea to check up on them.

That gut instinct led me straight to the beach where I sometimes went to clear my head. I wasn't too nervous about sneaking up on the two of them, since I figured Annabeth would be a little too emotional at this point to know how close I was.

I was right about them being on the beach; they were sitting side by side watching the water coming in on the shore and then dragged back out. I sat down a couple yards behind them and just listened in—which felt kind of wrong, but this was my fiancé and the reincarnation of the guy who was my friend-turned-worst-enemy-turned-friend-for-a-minute-before-dying. I had eavesdropping rights.

"That must have been tough." Annabeth said after it was quiet for a few minutes.

"Yeah, it was. But my mom dealt with it. She always said school was just an in-between until I could come here. I didn't actually believe her, though. I thought she was just trying to make me feel important since she knew I blamed myself for dad leaving."

"You...you _do _know that your father didn't abandon you, right?" Annabeth's voice was a little shaky. I could guess what she was thinking: the last thing we needed was for _this _Luke to go the same way the last one had.

"I know. Gods have responsibilities. Chiron told me. And Poseidon never stayed with the pact the way his brothers did. Cyclopes—a lot of half-bloods—he said the cabin was full a few summers ago."

"That's right." Annabeth almost sounded relieved. "Poseidon's wife Amphrite is supposed to be a really distant nymph; that's why Poseidon is always pursuing mortal women. Some say he's just closer to them then the other gods."

"Does that make me blessed?" Luke didn't really say it like a question, more like a riddle. "Or cursed?"

"It doesn't matter either way." Annabeth was totally confidant. "_You _decide your own fate, in the end."

Luke turned his head toward her. "That's what I did last time, isn't it?" I saw Annabeth stiffen up, and then Luke looked back at the water. "Percy told me. I'm not supposed to remember things from my past. But sometimes they come through, and I don't understand them. I dream about battles. I have that scar under my arm. And you..." He looked at her again. "You're always in my dreams."

Annabeth started drawing something in the sand; a blueprint, I guessed. "Did you know that no hero has ever bathed in the river Styx and then chosen rebirth? One lifetime was always enough. But maybe it's different for you...you chose eternity on both sides. Eternal existence, either reincarnation three times or having an Achilles mark."

"Then that's why I remember?"

"It's possible. Some people would know more. Hades' son, or Hades himself. People who deal in death have to be wise about it."

"A daughter of Athena would know all about wisdom, wouldn't she?"

Annabeth looked at him so fast she probably got whiplash. "How did you—? I never told you who I was."

"I could say it was the way you were getting cozy with Percy," Luke offered. "He told me his fiancé was here at the camp. But it's deeper than that—I knew who you were the second I saw you."

"From your dreams." Annabeth's voice was flat.

"Not even that. I saw your face and I knew who you were, Annabeth."

I didn't have to see Annabeth's face to know she was crying. "Oh, my gods, it's really you. How is that _possible_?"

"Maybe family is stronger than death."

I didn't stick around to watch her crush him in a huge hug; I got up and walked a ways down the beach, just clearing my head. Like, _I should have known we wouldn't get a clean slate_. But it shouldn't have bothered me; Maybe Luke had been in love with Annabeth in his past life, maybe not, but either way it would just be creepy now. And Annabeth had to know that.

I stopped so far down the shore they wouldn't hear me or see me, and I looked up at the stars. "I need a little help, here."

The thunder from a perfectly clear sky was probably Zeus saying something not very nice, but after a few seconds I got that prickly feeling on my neck, like I wasn't alone anymore.

"Perhaps I should have sent another _Brace Yourself _note."

I didn't flinch when I heard his voice behind me. I just shoved my hands into my pockets and looked at the Sound. "Why didn't you tell me before, dad?"

Poseidon walked over to stand beside me, tugging at the neck of his Hawaiian shirt. "I doubt you would have believed me, son. I had no idea which soul my child would take."

"You just felt like complicating my life again, huh?"

"Percy, try to understand. The everlasting life of a god is complicated. I was under enormous stress from the attacks on my palace, and my wife would not stop heckling me for _one minute_. It wasn't intentional; I wandered ashore during a break in the onslaught and I met Loraine Backlund. It wasn't planned, not like it was with Sally. Loraine was vacationing on the coast, just where I happened to be. One thing led to another, and..."

"Luke happened." I didn't need Annabeth's wisdom to figure _that _one out. "What does Hermes think?"

"Hermes? He's just tickled that his son has a second chance. _Our_ son," He corrected, then paused. "That seems strange even to my ears. But regardless, Percy, you must see this for what it is. Luke has been given a second chance, a clean slate. If he follows the right path, who knows what he might accomplish?"

My dad never really talked to me like this unless he had something in mind. "What do the gods want from me, dad?"

"It is your turn to lead, Percy, to teach. But as much as you serve us, even the gods cannot stop fate. No matter how much..._I _care for you. It is out of my hands."

_Fate_. I remembered the old ladies snipping the thread when I was twelve. I felt cold all over. "What's my fate, dad?"

"In time, you will see." He walked past me and put his foot in the water. "I've said all I can, Percy. For now, enjoy the things you have. Forget the past and live for the future. Tomorrow is never guaranteed."

Next thing I knew, he was gone and I was alone, still rubbing the goosebumps off my arms.

_Even the gods cannot stop fate._

"Percy!" Annabeth's voice made me jump; she was walking down the beach with Luke trailing behind her. They both looked a little happier.

"Percy." Annabeth repeated as she stopped in front of me. "What are you _doing _out here, Seaweed Brain?"

"Looking for guidance, I guess."

She didn't ask, probably because she already knew. "Well, let's go back to the pavilion. I hear Chiron's cooking up a surprise for your birthday—literally."

"Okay." I hesitated. "Did you have a heart-to-heart with Luke?"

Annabeth nodded, her eyes shining. "You wouldn't believe how much he remembers, Percy. It's just fractured, but...I think in time, he may have another lifetime to draw strength from. I don't think the gods planned for this."

"Me neither." I agreed. But even when the three of us were trekking back to join the others and it sort of felt peaceful, there was that cold feeling that stayed inside of me.

I had a feeling we were about to face another storm.


	3. In Which There Are Predictions

I feel there's probably no turning back after this segment; I'll have to make a fanfiction out of this. :]

Hope all you readers enjoy this installment!

* * *

In Which There Are Predictions

Five days after Luke showed up at Camp Half-Blood, we had another visitor that I totally wasn't expecting; not just because she ran an art school two blocks from the Empire State Building where the gods could keep an eye on her, but because I hadn't seen her in three years and Rachel Elizabeth Dare _never_—seriously, _never_—came to the Camp unless there was an emergency. And there had only been an emergency once, when one of her students freaked out and blew up part of the wall in her study because he got mad. (He was Ares' kid, in case you were wondering.)

Anyway, things were starting to go back to normal at Camp, other than the fact that Luke followed me and Annabeth around, probably because he remembered Annabeth and she was the only one who really made him feel at home. Not that I wasn't trying, but...it's a little weird to wake up in the morning and see the face of someone who's tried to kill you a hundred times staring at you from the other bunk. Not exactly the best start to anyone's day.

But Annabeth didn't really care about that stuff; she treated Luke just like normal and he followed her around like my old pet mastiff, Mrs. O'Leary, used to follow me. That was before Nico had run off on some quest and she followed him. I hadn't really seen her much since then; I guess he smelled better to a hellhound than I did, being the son of the Hades and all.

Annabeth, Grover, Luke and I were camped out on the edge of the strawberry fields, where all the satyrs were playing their pipes and bringing up a huge harvest. Annabeth was grilling Luke about training—sword-fighting was definitely one place where, so far, the memories from his past life hadn't carried over—and all of a sudden Grover stopped playing and looked up at the sky.

"Anybody else feel that?" He asked.

Annabeth stopped talking and I focused for a second, which is still a pain for me sometimes because my ADHD makes my mind go a hundred places at once; the sky was still clear, there wasn't any unusual monster smell or anything. I thought maybe he was putting himself to sleep with that music when all of a sudden the hairs on my arms stood up. So either I was about to be zapped by a lightning bolt from Zeus, or...

"I smell a mummy." Luke said.

Annabeth and I exchanged a glance.

"Rachel." We said it at the same time and then I was on my feet. "Stay here." I told them. "I'll be right back."

I ran up the hill to the Big House, hoping I could beat her there, but I didn't; she was waiting on the porch, and yep, she smelled.

Not that it was her fault; it was just that the spirit of Delphi's last body had sort of rotted to a—yeah, to a mummy, thanks to a curse from Hades. I noticed that whenever Rachel Elizabeth Dare got into a mood, she started smelling a little stale herself. But only demigods noticed it. And satyrs. Not mortals, they probably figured she just hadn't showered in a couple of days.

Rachel turned around like she sensed me standing behind her; she looked just the same with her read hair and her freckles. She wasn't immortal, but she sure aged pretty well. And Annabeth would have killed me for thinking that.

"Hey, Rachel." I walked toward her; she tugged at the paint-splattered strap of her overalls and smiled.

"Hello, Percy Jackson." She kissed me on the cheek. "How did you know I was...?"

"I, uh...you know, demigod sixth sense." It was easier than telling her I could smell her; that would earn be a good smack for sure. "Anyway, what are you doing at the Camp? Got another half-blood who needs to learn some manners?"

"Thankfully, no." Rachel's smile was breezy. "I think I have an all-mortal class this semester."

"That's great." I shifted from foot to foot, feeling a little awkward. "So, uh...what brings you here, then?"

"I just wanted to visit." Rachel leaned against the railing and looked out toward the cabins. "It's so peaceful...so beautiful."

"Yeah." I replied with feeling, crossing my arms on the railing beside her. "It is."

We got quiet for a few minutes. Then Rachel started playing with her shirtsleeve. "Actually, Percy, it's the strangest thing...I had a feeling last week that I haven't felt in a long, long time."

"What's that?"

"Oh, you know...the mad urge to crawl into a dusty old attic and hide for a few years." She said it totally nonchalant, like every thirty year old girl got that feeling once or twice.

"Delphi's spirit giving you trouble?" I asked sympathetically; it's hard to convince a spirit to stay out in the open when it's used to living in the top part of a musty house for about seventy years.

She frowned. "Not exactly. It's just been stirring inside of me more than usual lately. Maybe it's time for another quest?"

I thought about it for a minute; every few years, or months, if the need called for it, campers were sent out on quests. I'd gone through a few during my time as a camper and believe me, they're no walk in the park. But lately things had been quiet—no sacred items stolen, no monsters on a rampage. Western Civilization was as quiet as it always was, which meant no one would be taking a quest and going to Rachel for their prophecy. And there always was a prophecy, for every quest.

"I don't think so." I admitted. "Everything's quiet."

"Hmm." Rachel knit her brows. "Then I must just be distracted lately."

I had to laugh; Rachel was always a little distracted. It was just the way she'd always been, ever since I'd met her at the Hoover Dam a long time ago.

"You want to walk around?" I asked her. "We got the rest of the minor gods' cabins finished since your last visit."

"Oh, I suppose I could." Rachel looked a little nervous, which I never really understood. She just didn't seem that comfortable at the Camp.

We walked to the cabins and I showed her the newer ones and we just talked about life: how great her art was selling, how cool it was for me to be a permanent counselor at the Camp, how she was handling her dad's death. It took her a while to talk through that last one, since her and Mr. Dare had just been getting close again when he'd gotten pneumonia and died on a ski trip, just like that. Sometimes it was hard for to me believe that regular mortals died that easily—when you're a demigod, there's a cure for easy stuff like life-threatening colds, and we don't get cancer or anything.

We ended up doing a loop around the forest and heading down the beach, and I tried not to think about my meeting with Poseidon a couple nights before. After we ran out of things to talk about, I asked Rachel if she wanted to see Annabeth and Grover. Of course she said yes...she'd never really been tight with them, but we all went way back.

We were close enough to see everyone sitting on the edge of the strawberry patch when Rachel stopped dead and her hand flew to her mouth. I didn't even notice she wasn't following me anymore until Annabeth looked up and saw the two of us and her eyes got wide. Then I turned around.

Rachel was staring at Annabeth, Grover and Luke like she was staring into Cerberus' three drooling maws. When she exhaled, there was a puff of green mist floating through her fingers.

_Uh-oh_. "Uh, Rachel..."

"Him." She dropped her hand from her mouth and pointed at Luke instead. He was starting to look a little freaked out, staring back at Rachel with wide eyes.

"Rachel, it's no big deal. I can explain." I tried to grab her arm but she jerked away from me like I was trying to burn her. "Rachel, it's not—!"

"The boy from the Labyrinth. The one who hated you so much. Luke...Luke Castellan, right? He's a reincarnated soul."

"Percy, what is she talking about? My last name is _Backlund_." Luke snapped, but then he stopped. "Wait. Do I know her? _Did _I know her?"

Rachel moved a few steps forward and Luke scrambled up to his feet. He and Rachel were still staring each other down. "I can...I can feel him, Percy. There's something odd about him...it's almost like an aura." Rachel looked at me for the first time since she'd spotted Luke. "Can't you feel it?"

"What's wrong with her, Percy?" Luke demanded. "She smells...strange."

That mummy stench was definitely getting worse, but something told me Rachel wasn't about to give a prophecy. There was something else going on, something I couldn't exactly explain, but it was tugging at the back of my mind. It was like I was forgetting some old part of my training, some detail I should have known.

Then Rachel clapped both of her hands over her mouth and started shivering; by the time her knees buckled, I was already moving. I held on to her and yelled over my shoulder, "Annabeth, Grover, get out of here!"

I saw Annabeth grab Luke and the three of them bolted toward the cabins, looking back over their shoulders the whole way. I dragged Rachel over to a bench on the side of the field and sat her down, grabbing her face with my hands.

"Look at me, Rachel." I shook her a little bit, the way my mom used to do to me when I was little and I'd throw a fit. "Rachel, what's going on? What's wrong?"

"Lord Apollo...he never told me..." Rachel swallowed hard. "Prophecies, Percy. The spirit of Delphi gives prophecies, yes?" When I nodded, she gulped. "The real reason I came here was to talk to Chiron. Sometimes I see things...not prophecies, but _visions_. It was the way I knew that Kronos was attacking New York on your sixteenth birthday. And my visions are always about _you_."

"Um, great." That didn't really explain anything. "Why did you look so scared when you saw Luke, Rachel?"

She blinked at me. "He's a reincarnated soul, Percy. Three times, for the Islands of the Blest?" I nodded and she took a deep breath. "There's something different about him. Something I don't understand. Something that has to do with _you_."

"Well, he's...sort of Poseidon's son." I admitted. "He's my half-brother."

She didn't look surprised; that didn't surprise me.

"It's not that. Percy, when I saw him..." Rachel shook her head. "I saw the vision of you. My first since you graduated from this Camp almost ten years ago. It's always just been flickers—sometimes of your future, or what you're doing at some point in time. I thought...I thought Chiron could tell me how to stop them. They're always so distracting. But if I hadn't seen this, I could never have warned you."

I swallowed hard. "What did you—?"

"Darkness. Some darkness I'd never seen before. It wasn't shadows, Percy, it was _moving_. It was almost alive. And you were there, chained to something, but you were not alone."

I could feel my heart going a mile a minute. "Rachel, tell me what you _saw_."

Her eyes pooled up with tears. "I saw Luke with a knife to your throat, Percy. I saw...I saw him kill you."


	4. In Which Oaths Are Sworn

In Which Oaths Are Sworn

When Annabeth found me, I was sitting on the beach again; not doing much, just chucking rocks into the Sound and watching them float to the bottom.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." I jumped when she put her hand on my shoulder; I hadn't even heard her coming up behind me.

"Hey." I didn't look at her. "How's Rachel?"

She hesitated for a second. "Still talking to Chiron. She seemed really shaken up." Annabeth sat down cross-legged beside me. "What happened, Percy?"

I shook my head. "You don't want to know, Annabeth. Trust me."

"_Please_." She scoffed. "You've been down here for _hours_, Percy. Anything that makes you upset is something I want to know about. Now spill it, or I'll _make _you talk."

"You can try." It was a pretty lame attempt to lighten up, on my part. I looked down at the sand. "Luke is going to kill me."

Annabeth got really quiet and I could almost hear the wheels turning in her brain. "Percy, how long will it take before you realize that _this _Luke is not—?"

"Annabeth." I cut her off. "That's what Rachel saw. She saw me chained up and him with a knife. She saw—"

"I don't believe it." Annabeth didn't let me finish. "There's no way he'd do this again, Percy. He's a different person; all of the poison Kronos put in his mind is gone. Lethe's stream washed it clean!"

"Did it?" I demanded. "Maybe you were wrong, Annabeth. Maybe it's not because he took a dive in the Styx. Maybe the reason he remembers stuff is because he's still Kronos' puppet."

She could have read me the riot act for eavesdropping on her conversation with Luke the week before, but she didn't. I guess she figured that this wasn't the right time for it.

"Then you think he's a tool." Annabeth's voice was flat. "That Kronos is lurking somewhere in Tartarus, and he's pulling Luke's strings just like before."

"I don't know, Annabeth. I can't rule it out."

"Then...what will you do?"

That was the question of the day; I chucked another handful of rocks.

"I know what a god would do." I looked at her sideways. "Hades didn't want to send Nico and Bianca to the Camp when they were kids because he was afraid Zeus would kill them. That's how gods take care of _their _problems; they just eliminate the threat."

"That's your master plan?" Annabeth snapped. "To kill Luke?"

I knew what that would mean for the two of us; Annabeth would never forgive me, especially because Luke hadn't really _done _anything yet. The gods would justify it and it wouldn't put a stain on my record with them, but I'd lose Annabeth. And sane or not, that wasn't something I was ready to risk.

"We're both sons of Poseidon this time." I reminded her. "The only ones at the Camp. So I'll help him train and maybe...it's a long shot, but maybe I can keep him from turning again, Annabeth. It's the only way."

Annabeth looked at me for a few seconds. "Was there a prophecy, or did Rachel just..._see _something?" I knew it still bugged her that Rachel had visions about me.

"Just a vision."

"Then it could be a trick. What if someone's manipulating the Oracle? I've never known the spirit of Delphi to give a prophecy through pure _vision_, have you?" She sounded pretty hopeful and I thought she was stretching it, but I decided to play along.

"Maybe, Annabeth." I got up. "I should talk to Grover. And Luke. Where are they?"

"Grover's with Mr. D." Annabeth stood up too and wiped the sand off of her shorts. "They're sending an Iris-message to the gods. Rachel wants to talk to Apollo about her visions."

I winced. "Um...could you ask her to keep the one about me and Luke...confidential?"

"Percy." Annabeth shook her head. "They have a right to know."

"I know that!" I swallowed. "I just want a chance to work with him first, Annabeth. I don't want Poseidon or Zeus to get up-in-arms about it yet. I'll tell them when the time is right. I don't think Rachel's prediction will come true, _if _it does, for a long time."

"What makes you so sure?" Annabeth was definitely suspicious.

_Nothing_. "Just a feeling I've got."

"I don't trust Rachel's visions that much." Annabeth sighed. "But I trust you. I'll keep your secrets, you idiot, but I don't like it."

"Then you'll like this even less." I stepped a little closer to her. "If something _does _happen to me, Annabeth, I still want you to keep that secret."

"Percy—!"

"Hear me out." I grabbed her shoulders and I could tell that really got her attention. "Give Luke a chance to either prove himself innocent, or get out. I know the gods have no trouble hunting down a half-blood, but Luke was always a whiz at staying out of sight."

"Percy."

I put my hand over her mouth. "Look, if he _does _kill me, he'll suffer enough. He'll never achieve Elysium or the Islands of the Blest. Hades will get him, and he might as well have a break before that."

She pulled my hand off her mouth. "_Percy_. You're asking me to let someone get away with your _murder_."

"If Luke's really changed, then we don't have anything to worry about." I reminded her, and I knew she was stuck. That was logic, something Annabeth couldn't deny. Either she believed what _she _said, that Luke was innocent and making this promise would be nothing; or she thought he was still a puppet of Kronos, and she'd have to stand aside while someone—me, or even Chiron—killed him.

"I swear I'll give him time." Annabeth whispered.

"Swear on the Styx."

She did. It felt like a huge weight came off my shoulders.

"Okay." I let her go. "Find Grover. Fill him in. I'll go talk to Luke."

"He's on the hill."

I leaned down to kiss her, then bolted before she could change her mind about this.

I felt like I was fighting a battle inside myself the whole way up to Half-Blood Hill. Part of me _wanted _to trust Luke. But the other part—instinct—was running screaming the other way. The truth was, I'd spent about four years with Luke as my enemy. Accepting him as a trustworthy friend this time—and as my _brother_—was getting harder every minute.

It wasn't hard to find Luke; he was sitting by Thalia's pine tree, the one where Zeus encased her a long time ago. Luke kept looking at it and I wondered if he remembered that whole thing—him and Annabeth and Thalia running to the Camp chased by monsters, Thalia giving her life for them.

"Dragons." He said the second he saw me. "I hate dragons."

Peleus lifted his head and snorted smoke like he didn't appreciate Luke's company much, either.

"That makes sense." I sat down beside Luke. "Last time...before Lethe's stream, you had a scar on your face. You got it from a dragon."

That didn't really seem to surprise him. "Is that the real Golden Fleece? The one from that movie, Jason and the Argonauts?"

"Yeah."

Luke shook his head. "I still can't believe all those insane stories are real." He got quiet for a minute. "That tree...I've seen it in my dreams, too."

"Zeus created it." I told him. "Well...sort of. He turned his half-blood daughter into a pine tree to preserve her life. When we put the Fleece on the tree—it was dying, because...um..." _You poisoned it_. "Somebody poisoned it. Anyway, it worked its magic a little too well. Thalia was healed."

Luke's eyes widened. "It's that powerful?"

"It saved a couple lives on our quest to retrieve it. Annabeth's especially."

"Whoa." Luke shook his head. "So that's why the dragon's here? To protect the Fleece?"

"I guess." I looked down over the valley. "No one's tried to steal it since we got it, but when Kronos was around, we were never sure."

"What would you do with it if you didn't need it anymore?"

"Probably take it back to Polyphemus." I shrugged.

"The Cyclops." Luke glanced at me sideways. "Our half-brother, right?"

I swallowed. "Yeah. Him."

Luke knit his brows. "What was up with that red-headed girl, Percy? She gave me the creeps."

"Rachel is the Oracle, Luke. She's inhabited by the spirit of Delphi. Remember what I told you about heroes getting quests?" He nodded. "Well, we—I mean, _they_—the heroes get their prophecies from Rachel."

"So..." Luke looked nervous. "Does she have a prophecy for me?"

"No, it was just a vision. And it was about me."

"Something bad?"

"I don't know. It could be." I shrugged. "Stuff like prophecies and visions...they aren't always what they seem. When I was a camper, I'd get quests and I'd think I had everything figured out, but in the end I'd get the rug pulled out from under me." I saw the way he was looking at me, so I added, "Which isn't always a bad thing. A lot of the time, prophecies are pretty gloomy. First time I got one, I thought I wouldn't be able to save my mom from the Underworld. Which...I didn't. Hades let her go. But she saved _herself _from Smelly Gabe, my jerk stepdad."

"I can't wait for my first quest." Luke closed his eyes. "It's probably stupid, but I want to prove myself. I want to prove to my dad that I can be a hero. I can save Olympus, if I have to. I'll make him proud."

"I can help you." I told him. "We're the only two sons of Poseidon right now. The Big Three still don't mingle with the mortals very often, even though they threw the pact out after I turned sixteen. So I can train you one on one."

"You'd do that?" I could tell he was surprised. I wondered if anyone had ever offered to give him some serious attention or if they just wrote him off as trouble.

Right now, I didn't know which one he was—a hero, or a murderer-in-training. But I felt like I was going to play a part, and if I wanted to sway things the right way, we had to start right now.

"Forget about what Rachel said. She can tell you're a reincarnated soul, but that doesn't mean anything. You've got an advantage most demigods don't have: there's a whole other life you lived that you can pull experience from. Think of that as a privilege, and use it that way." I smiled at him. "That's your first lesson."

When he grinned, it made my skin feel cold, the same kind of cold as when I was around Kronos years ago; I wasn't stupid. I knew ambition and I knew pride, and Luke Backlund teetered on the edge of both.

"I'll be a hero." He said. "I swear by the gods, I will."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that the gods took oaths like that pretty seriously, and if Rachel's vision came true, Luke would have every force on Olympus after him now—and not just our dad.

"The gods must be crazy, letting things play out like this." I muttered. _But I guess we have no choice. We have to ride the waves and just hope everything works out._

"They probably _are _a little crazy. And we're their kids." Luke winked at me. "What does that say about _us_?"

FIN.

* * *

Look for the sequel, "The Fallen's Oath", to be published soon!


End file.
